How Leicester City went from Premier League champions to the third tier in a decade | UK News

In May 2016, Leicester City held aloft the Premier League trophy, defying 5,000/1 odds in what was one of the most extraordinary underdog stories in the history of English football.

Just shy of a decade after that remarkable title triumph, the Foxes are preparing for life in League One next season, having suffered back-to-back relegations.

Their fate was sealed on Tuesday evening: a 2-2 draw with Hull City at the King Power Stadium confirming their place in the third tier for only the second time in the club’s 142-year history.

It marks a sharp decline for a club that, during those 10 years, boasted two top-five Premier League finishes, an appearance in the quarter-finals of the Champions League – Europe’s elite club competition – and FA Cup glory for the first time ever in 2021.

However, amid the highs, Leicester have also had to contend with some devastating lows during that time – most notably the death of owner Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in a helicopter crash in October 2018.

A 5,000/1 fairytale

Leicester began the 2015/16 season as 5,000/1 outsiders to win the Premier League. The season before, they had consolidated their top-flight status by just six points, having secured promotion from the Championship the prior year.

Under the stewardship of Italian manager Claudio Ranieri, the Foxes defied the odds right from the start of the 2015/16 campaign, suffering just one defeat in their opening 17 league fixtures.

They were top of the table by mid-January, a position they never relinquished as they stormed to the title, finishing 10 points clear of runners-up Arsenal, having lost just three league games all season.

Striker Jamie Vardy, one of the poster boys of that success, finished on 24 league goals and became the first player to score in 11 straight Premier League matches – a record that still stands.

Champions League football came the following year, where Leicester progressed further than any other English team that season before exiting at the hands of Spanish side Atletico Madrid in the last eight.

The club’s ‘darkest day’

On 27 October 2018, little over two years after their league triumph, Leicester netted a late equaliser in a home game against West Ham to send fans inside the King Power Stadium into raptures.

But joy would turn to horror just hours later when five people – including the club’s billionaire owner Mr Srivaddhanaprabha – were killed in a helicopter crash outside the ground, in what has been described as the “darkest day” in the history of the club.

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Helicopter crash was ‘accidental’

All five victims were travelling on board the helicopter, which an inquest later found had suffered a mechanical failure that caused it to spin out of control.

In the days following the crash, wreaths were laid at the stadium, and tributes flooded in for a man many credit with turning around the fortunes of the club.

After buying Leicester for £39m in 2010, Mr Srivaddhanaprabha cleared the club’s debts before overseeing one of the greatest sporting stories of all time six years later.

Following Vichai’s death, his son Aiyawatt – known as “Top” – took charge of the club. Since then, however, the club has failed to sustain the same level of success.

A rapid decline

After lifting the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history in 2021 – courtesy of a Youri Tielemans goal in a 1-0 win over Chelsea at Wembley – Leicester, under boss Brendan Rodgers, finished eighth in the league the following year and also reached the semi-finals of the inaugural Europa Conference League.

But the season after, the Foxes struggled. Rodgers was dismissed in April 2023, and the team ultimately failed to avoid relegation to the second tier.

They returned to the Premier League after just one season away but came straight back down again in 2025. Since Rodgers’s exit, the club has failed to establish stability in the dugout, having churned through six different permanent managers in just three years.

On-field issues have swiftly been followed by problems off it. In February this year, Leicester were deducted six points as punishment for exceeding the maximum loss threshold by more than £20m over the three-year assessment period ending in 2024.

Last month, the club reported another significant pre-tax loss of £71.1m during the 2024/25 season.

In recent years, Aiyawatt has wiped out hundreds of millions of pounds of the club’s debt.

But that, as well as having one of the Championship’s highest wage bills and boasting a squad brimming with international pedigree, could not save Leicester from slipping further down England’s footballing pyramid.

Relegation to the third tier will have additional financial implications for the club and heap more misery on to an already frustrated fanbase.